Mayhem Is Erupting Again In Ferguson As Police And Protesters Clash

The National Guard has
beencalled to Ferguson, Missouri, where protests have escalated over the
past two days after a midnight curfew was imposed by Gov. Jay
Nixon.

The St. Louis suburb has been the site of racially charged protests since the
Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police
officer Darren Wilson. Clashes between protesters and police had
calmed as the week progressed but have ramped up again over the
weekend.

Nixon imposed the curfew on Saturday at a
rowdy press conference during which Capt. Ron Johnson
tried to assuage fears that police would use force to enforce it.

"We won't enforce it with trucks, with tear gas. We will
communicate ... Because someone is standing in the street, there
is not going to be an armored truck come out," he said.

Despite these assurances, there were numerous reports of police
firing tear gas into crowds marching toward a police command
center on Sunday night, hours before the curfew was set to be
imposed. St. Louis County police said Molotov cocktails were being thrown at
police.

"It really is just pure chaos down here," Brian Schellman, a St.
Louis County Police spokesman, told KSDK News.

Many protesters disputed the police account that Molotov
cocktails had been thrown at the police.

"That is a lie. It was no fight — it was no shots fired,"
protester Lisha Williams told CNN. "The only
ones who fired was police. All we did was march to the command
center to fall to our knees and say, 'Don't shoot.' And they
started shooting."

The clashes came on the same night The New York Times released the results of a private autopsy
report conducted on behalf of Brown's family. According to the
report, Brown was shot six times in the fatal incident, including
twice in his head. The bullets that entered his body
did not appear to have been fired from very close range,
according to the report.

An autopsy conducted by local officials had still not been
completed. Meanwhile,
Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the Justice
Department would conduct its own autopsy because of what
spokesman Brian Fallon said was "due to
the extraordinary
circumstances involved in this case and at the request of the
Brown family."

Attorneys representing the
family held a press conference Monday
morning, during which they suggested the autopsy performed by
Michael Baden, a former chief medical examiner for New York City,
provided "ample evidence" that Wilson should be arrested.

"We believe given those
kinds of facts, that this officer should have been arrested.
Those things speak for themselves," family lawyer Daryl Parks
said. "Why would he have been shot in the very top of his head —
6-foot-4 man, makes no sense."

Police also
clashed with members of the press Sunday night. One journalist
from Argus Radiocaptured videoof
a person he identified as a police officer telling him to "get
the f--- out of here ... or you're getting shelled with
this."

Nixon announced early Monday
that he had signed an executive order to send in National Guard
troops to Ferguson.

"Given these deliberate,
coordinated and intensifying violent attacks on lives and
property in Ferguson, I am directing the highly capable men and
women of the Missouri National Guard ... in restoring peace and
order to this community," he said in a statement.

A man falls to the ground suffering the effect of tear
gas used by police at a protest of the death of Michael Brown on
Sunday in Ferguson, Missouri.Joshua
Lott/Getty Images

A woman has her face
doused with milk after suffering the effects of tear gas used by
police at a protest of the death of Michael Brown on Sunday in
Ferguson, Missouri.Joshua Lott/Getty
Images

A man suffering the
effects of tear gas is helped at a protest of the death of
Michael Brown on Sunday in Ferguson, Missouri.Joshua Lott/Getty Images

Tear gas and smoke wafts
around the site of a protest of the death of Michael Brown on
Sunday in Ferguson, Missouri.Joshua
Lott/Getty Images

A protester picks up a gas
canister to throw back toward the police after tear gas was fired
at demonstrators continuing to react to the shooting of Michael
Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on Sunday. Shots were fired and
police shouted through bullhorns for protesters to disperse,
witnesses said, as chaos erupted Sunday night in
Ferguson.REUTERS/Lucas
Jackson